Reuters
Date: May 8, 2018
By: Jess Macy Yu
TAIPEI (Reuters) – China is disregarding the health of the people of Taiwan by blocking
A man walks past a row of Taiwan’s national flags in Taipei, October 14, 2011. REUTERS/Pichi Chuang
the island’s participation in an annual U.N. health meeting later this month, the Taiwan government said.
Taiwan’s China policy-making body said late on Monday the exclusion of Taiwan from the World Health Assembly (WHA) for a second consecutive year showed Beijing’s lack of will to improve relations.
“China’s use of its one-sided political stance, and persistence in suppressing and blocking our participation in the WHA, disregards Taiwan people’s health safety rights,” the island’s Mainland Affairs Council said in a statement.
“Our government expresses its strong condemnation at this unreasonable action,” the council said ahead of the May 21-26 WHA meeting in Geneva.
Taiwan is one of China’s most sensitive issues. The island is claimed by Beijing as its sacred territory and China has never renounced the use of force to bring under Chinese control what it considers to be a wayward province. [FULL STORY]
